(Above) The hardest working man in show business, Gary Hutzel, and the in-progress, real world, full scale U-87 Cylon from the BSG spinoff show “Caprica”. Gary is like that bunny on TV with the batteries… he keeps going, and going!
Recently the Caprica\BSG VFX team had an extraordinary experience. It’s rare that a CG model is built into the full meal deal and you can stand in the same space with it. Gary knew that “Caprica” would have shots where the proto-Cylon would be deactivated and standing by. It made sense to have a real world version built for those, saving us from having to render and composite the CG version.
Gary enlisted the aid of awe-inspiring model maker, Lou Zutavern. Lou and his guys built the U-87 in an unbelievably short time frame. What’s really remarkable is that Lou and the crew built every part by hand with no computer prototyping of any kind. I might also add that Lou built the robot where no other shop could have pulled it off, meaning that they did it for a pittance. It’s a regular Hollywood battle cry in our arena… no time and no money. Funny how sometimes the best stuff grows from those limitations. Lou and his guys made it happen because they thought it was cool. Kudos gentlemen!
Note the “Trial and Tribble-ations” Enterprise hanging overhead. Lou was part of Greg Jein’s crew on that milestone.
(Below) Gary looks on delighted by Pierre Drolet’s reaction to seeing his CG model being built in reality, right before his eyes. Pierre designed and built the U-87 under the supervision of Gary. Hutzel.
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(Below) Some of Gary’s Caprica\BSG VFX team with the finished U-87. From left to right: FX artist Farrah Welch (Farrah is one of our newest discoveries. She came out of nowhere as a breakout tech, and is rapidly making a name for herself as a modeler), next the ultimate CG modeler Pierre Drolet. That’s me in front Pierre, and in front of me the diabolical Davey Morton (Dave is THE CG matte painting sorcerer). Behind the U-87 is our genius IT master Jeremy Lang, and to the right of Jeremy is Jesse Toves (Jesse is one of the greatest character animators I have ever seen, not only that, the dude can sculpt, model, and draw!). Kneeling in front of Jesse, Prince of Darkness Sean Jackson ( Sean is responsible for all the most impressive fireworks you’ve seen on BSG), and far right is Dave Takemura, affectionately known as D-Tak (Dave is our master VFX coordinator who not only coordinates, but has no problem rolling up his sleeves and getting into the comps as well). Dave, like Gary and I, is an old school guy. We began our journey working together on TNG, and we’re still keepin’ on keepin’ on!
Great stuff! Love the behind the scenes insights Doug.
And I’m glad Greg’s fantastic Enterprise model is still around
That is totally awesome! At some point in the production, I hope to hear a story where someone hides this Cylon in a closet to scare the daylights out of someone!
3 cheers for the VFX crew! I can’t wait to see Caprica. Given the work you guys have done so far, I know the work in Caprica will be top notch!
Awesome!
Isn’t Lou’s name spelled with a “t” though; Lou Zutavern?
Wow, to see one of your CG models THAT big in front of you! sO über-coolness! What a fun lookin’ crew too, eh.
LLP,
deg
Way cool!
As for the budget limitations, it seems to me that the best and most inventive material comes out of 1 part genius, 1 part time limit and 1 part poverty.
Someone once commented that John Carpenter’s movies are at their best when he’s got no budget and therefore has to improvise and that when he has a budget to spend, the movies are never quite as good eg, Halloween, Escape from New York (no budget to speak of) vs Escape from L.A. and Ghosts of Mars (something of a budget). Basically, he’s at his best under pressure.
I think that creativity thrives on boundries.
Very true. Whenever I need to restart my studio practice, I limit my palette to four colors – cad red, cad yellow, blue black, and white. Technically, white is not a color, but it’s indispensable. I’m always surprised at the number of colors one can mix from just these. But of course, Velazquez already knew that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Meninas
I agree. That’s why I think the Hay’s Code was good for Hollywood.
Eeek! I wasn’t referring to censorship!
I know you weren’t. But boundaries there were and I think Hollywood probably made better movies because of them.
I don’t think much of the Hay’s code, but that’s me.
Ditto.
Well put Doug! Something I’ve always believed, that having limitless resources in art is the highway to hell…but that’s just me. Us. Comrade
To steal deg’s term, über-coolness was what I was thinking just looking at the first pic and thinking about the low cost and speed with which it was built! That is truly an über-cool model!!
Is that Gary’s garage? I filmed model of the Lady herself just hangin’ around, eh? Nice conversation piece!
I’ll bill ya, dea.
LLP,
deg
PS. Aaaa, forget it, make good use o’ it.
Hmmmmmm….
Li’l Killbear, keep your opinions to yourself, eh? I’m way over here in AZ, so you can’t hurt me!
Hmmmmmm….
Hi Dea! That’s Lou’s shop.
Hi Doug! I see that the Enterprise also snuck her secondary hull into the shot with everyone…what a ham!
Sweet model. Though I’m curious if you made it out of plastic?
It’s all resin and plastic. It weighs a mere 150 lbs. Metal would be prohibitive.
And costly. :p
But wonder how long until some innovative creator designs a model that can actually walk?
This is ultra cool.
It would be great to see more BSG or Caprica stuff here, so thanks for this one!
I can almost hear it’s eye humming.
What a beautiful model.
I didn’t know about it’s U-87 designation. Where’s that from, and is there any explanation as to what it means (if anything)?
Wow! Now that’s a family photo!
The U-87 looks amazing — can’t wait to see more of it in Caprica.
(I can hear the eye-swoosh too.
)
Doug looks unusually intense in that shot.
Farrah doesn’t look TOO out of place…because the robot keeps you from noticing.
So basically we have photographic evidence that Cylons are real.
Cool photos as always, Doug.
The term U-87 cought me off guard as well. Where is it from?
And I can imagine it’s too cool to look at something and think *I modelled that… And now it’s standing right in front of me!* When the Evil Robot Machines(TM) take over the world, you know where they’ll come first
Wow, I don’t use the A-word very often, but that’s awesome! Nice to see International Ladies Man Pierre Drolet, as well.
Now I have to watch Caprica again, I assumed all the shots of the fully built cylon were CG.
That is tres cool… I had no idea an actual model was built, don’t know if that’s a compliment or not but that is some amazing work.
It’s not in the pilot, which is the only episode that has been released.
Great Post Doug!!
Love the photo of Pierre seeing his creation become “real”.
Good to see the spirit of fun from Trek coming over to BSG crew.
Mark
Oh, by the way, THAT Cylon is DEFINATELY NOT some guy in a suit !!
BY YOUR COMMAND !!
Maybe a little late, but here are some really nice hi-res fotos of the finished Cylon in Graystone’s lab:
http://spoilertv.blogspot.com/2009/10/caprica-set-and-panel-photos.html
I especially like this one here:
http://spoilertv.iimmgg.com/image/9d828f11f101e31ac46ce4aae719b3d8
Wow, those are really good! Thanks for posting the link.
Dang! I’d love to see a full size replica of this toaster as i got the Cylon from F. Barton: that would be a Huge set!!!!!! I really love the details!
My congrats to the artists!
Just watched “Rebirth.” Great work all around, of course, but I’m curious if this U-87 was completed in time for this episode …
Also, are there lights inside your Cylon as there are in the CG Cylon?
I watched it last night after finally watching the movie a couple of days ago…I think this series is going places!! Good job to the Caprica team all around!
It would be cool if this guys has lights like that too.
CGI is taking over SO MUCH these days. So many of the old science – fiction / fantasy / horror / adventure films that I remember had stop – motion SFX & the traditional ” guys in rubber suits ” as monsters or aliens. The old ” Doctor Who ” series had them in almost every episode, as did ” Space: 1999 “.
It’s nice to know that the art of model – & – prop making is still alive out there in TV & movie – land.
Would be someday a way that this “pre-toaster” will be reproduced for sale?
I’d love to get one!!! I was so impressed with F. Barton Cylon, but this is very, very detailed and pretty next to the old model from TOS
Do you mean as a life – size model or as a working robot / prop ?
They had an entry in a website that said ” Does This Cylon Body Make Me Look Fat ? “.
The episode ” Rebirth ” has Zoe hiding the fact that she’s in the U – 87, while she’s being treated like a hunk of metal. Amanda refers to the U – 87 as looking like a ” monster “.
Shades of the Frankenstein monster.
Yes, I was refering to a life-size replica, just like the Centurion Fred Barton has made.
That model would scare away prowlers, burglars, etc., ESPECIALLY if it had LED lights installed !!! Stick a model tazer in its hand, & no burglar or predator would come near your place…..
well, look what I have inside in the entrance of my home (which is also my office)
[IMG]http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d176/VZygmuntowicz/Cylon2009045.jpg[/IMG]
Sorry, did not work: here it is: so you see why I might be interested in:
http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d176/VZygmuntowicz/?action=view¤t=Cylon2009045.jpg
The ” new ” Cylon Centurions look somewhat more streamlined than the Original ones, but that’s because they’re CGI, of course. The U – 87 doesn’t look that streamlined just yet. Maybe after they turn out more of them in the series they’ll look that way.
It’s a shame that they just showed the heads ( semi – fossilized ) of the Earth – manufactured Cylon models in ” Revelations ” ( Was that the right ep. ? ).
I agree about the “Earth” Centurion (love that helmet: vader/samurai/robot like)
Some says that it looks like, or very similar, to what B. Singer wanted to do in 2001 (movie adaptation)
“It looks just like a Greystone U-87. You’ll love it!”
– Crew Frack, Zapp Franka
The Earth model Centurions – at least the pieces of them in ” Revelations ” – looked very close to the Old – School Centurions from Original BSG, but like I said, these guys looked semi – fossilized & it was hard to see much detail. I saw a site with early designs for the Centurions. Some of them had flat heads & looked rather squat. Some were almost like Terminators, and still some like Dr. Doom’s ” Doom – Bots “. They may have used some of them in the scenes on planet ” Gamoray ” with ” civilian ” Cylons in the Original series.
Wonder what a ” civilian ” Cylon would do in their down – time ?
They borrowed primarily from Roman Centurion / Greek designs for the helmet along with a Vader – esque mask.
http://darthmojo.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/bsg-vfx-anatomy-ancient-cylon/
More samurai-robot (I really love it and think seriously to have a customized replica of it)
Ah – Now I see. It DEFINITELY looks a Samurai – Cylon after all. It would be kinda cool to see some of these guys ( or variations thereof ) on Caprica, if possible.
And Andy Probert was the guy I was referring to earlier with all the different prototype designs for the original Cylons. He had a blog on WordPress, too.
I see…Actually, I am planning to get one (earth cylon head) custom made in aluminium. With acid technique, there might be something like a real artefact
whihc would be cool next to my Fred Barton’s centurion.
Love robots!
The blog with Probert said that he intended to make the Cylon helmet look more like an alien skull, but instead the end product wound up like Darth Vader’s helmet.
The re – imagined Cylons resemble Boba Fett ( Maybe ) to a degree, with maybe some insectoid influence.
& the re – imagined Raiders have the eye – scanner in the front with the grill like the Original Centurion skull had. It was strange how they apparently weren’t designed to carry Cylon pilots, even if it was because they were bio – mechanical & could fight on their own.
Well, for the raiders in he re-imagined serie, that makes sense. I mean, having no pilot.
What’s the need when there are machines afterall? The same thing in Terminator with the air patrols: there are no T-800 piloting them.
An I always thought it was wa waist, in the BGTOS: 3 centurions gone when a raider was blowned up ^^!
But I think that, at that time, they were comparying centurions to stromtroopers.
It does make sense, that way the Centurions are free to serve as ground forces, & they’re not getting atomized in the vacuum of space in exchanges between Raiders & Colonial Vipers.
The re – imagined Centurions & even the Raiders had memories & minds, which I thought was interesting.
I wonder if the 1st Hybrid will be shown on Caprica ? I missed the episode of BSG where they had the oldest Hybrid. They must’ve used some interesting editing to keep them from just looking like a human in a whirlpool surrounded by tubing & electronics ( Like Anders in the finale. ).
That would be instesting indeed. Moreover, in Razor, to pay homage to the BGTOS, we have seen a golden centurion piloting a raider with 2 normal centurions. I really hope they will explain the need of hierachy and leadership among the centurions (Zoe’s ideas??) and than, of course, the search of organic body.
really like that whole world! (just watched Blade runner a couple of days ago: that movie is really a sequel to the serie=> the cycle has been reborn in someway in the distant future and the las conclusion of the serie make sense, especially when you put this 1982 movie after!)
really really love that U-87 model in real
OH BOY. I think I died, and went to heaven. I had no idea a real life Cylon was built. This is awesome, and gives me the time to gather up cash to buy this puppy and place him next to my other screen used Cylon’s Always can make room for more Cylon’s. That is so fantastic of a built, and not computer aided in the build was showing the true art of sculpting is still alive. Thanks for sharing this fantastic piece of art with the world.
They didn’t have much a hierarchy with the Centurions in the re – imagined series, so it looked to me, anyway. There were no Gold Centurions, they all seemed to be pretty much expendable drones ( ” Lobotomized ” to a degree ), answerable to the humanoid Cylons & maybe to the Hybrid.
The world of Caprica really seems believable, although I don’t care much for their snobbery towards some of the other colonies like Tauron & Gemenon. There seems to be tremendous pressure to hide one’s past if one is from a place like Tauron, Gemenon, Aeralon ( Sp ? ).
& there IS more than a marked resemblance to ” Blade Runner “, in that the architecture isn’t all sterile, space – y & super – futuristic.
Love the way that Zoe appears to be using the U – 87 as camo. Very unusual.
BTW : I finally gave in & joined Twitter. I’m listed as ( Yes, you read right – ) ” WillyAdama “. It’s free & interesting.
I wonder if Doug used the influence of ” Blade Runner “, more or less in Caprica City, although Caprica City looks a little less grittier than futuristic L.A.
Back to the U – 87 / Zoe – Bot : I loved the Cylon Dance sequence in the most recent episode. This young tech, Philemon, keeps admiring the Zoe – Bot in a semi – professional manner, with Zoe – A making eyes at him a couple of times. They transitioned between Zoe -A & U – 87 Cylon dancing / going through the motions of dancing.
It’s getting really interesting !!!
can’t wait to watch these episodes!
Blade runner was dark, caprica look more bright (before darkness afterall)
What made me think about balde runner is the cylon colony in the las episode of BSG, especially a plan where a raptor lands on a ground: that ground looks really similar to the Tyrol Corp. building (moreover, hearing “skin-jobs” in that movie really reminds the serie).
I really envy you in the USA to watch Caprica now.
Yes, Blade Runner was very dystopian & gloomy, whereas Caprica was somewhat brighter. With the permissiveness & hedonism, it seems almost like what I’ve heard about Amsterdam, on a global scale.
But the architecture & art, juxtaposition of old & new is really interesting.
Speaking of BSG, you do know that Edward James Olmos played the dapper, odd character ” Gaff ” in ” Blade Runner “. When Tricia Helfer was familiarizing herself with the role of Six, & needed help in learning how to portray a humanoid Cylon ” Skin – Job “, Olmos gave her a DVD of ” Blade Runner ” to help her get into the role, so there’s plenty of influence from the movie.
Seriously? Yes, I new he was playing the strange cop making origama figures and talking the “slang” of this future, but did not know about the DVD and T. Helfer.
You’re right thinking about Amsterdam btw.
& Edward James Olmos came up with the ” City – Speak ” used in ” Blade Runner “, BTW.
I just heard this little anecdote about Tricia Helfer getting the DVD of ” Blade Runner ” to give her a little primer in playing an artificial being. I think BSG was her 1st acting job, she mostly did modeling prior to that.
Never been to Amsterdam, but I’ve heard plenty about the lifestyle.
Caprica seems like Amsterdam, Rome, NYC & perhaps Paris in space.
I stand by my statement that Capricans are somewhat prejudiced towards other Colonials.
Doug D. should be back on – line here in a few more days…..
The 1st time I recall seeing Tricia was in Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of ‘Charlie’s Angels’. She was a dead on look of Farah. She did a awesome job playing that part.
Sounds great ! Never been to Amsterdam too, but I am not too far (Belgium) so I am used to get news from all around
I live in Middle Tennessee, USA, this is mostly a rural area, so it might be analogous to Tauron…. Oh my God, I’m a ” dirt – eater ” ( not quite that rural !! ) !! or maybe to Gaius B’s home planet Aeralon…..
The Internet & satellite TV ARE truly making Earth a global village. There are villages in or near the Amazon that are wired for satellite & Internet.
Yep, Internet is making all things pretty close.
And plenty of horses & ranches here on ” Tauron ” / ” Aeralon “.
!!
Glad you reminded me of the bourbon – I need to find some
The next season of Caprica begins in October, so you may YET be able to catch up in Belgium. It only SEEMS like a long wait. I think the season finale is in April if not sooner.
Twitter, YouTube, ” hulu “, all those services are marking the world into a global village. I can even have my YouTube use monitored on Twitter. Some people might holler ” Big Brother ” or ” George Orwell “, but I don’t know…..
I hope to watch it soon (the funny thing for me is that was shot in Vancouver and I used to leave there for a couple of month. So, the funny part is to recognize some buildings in this Caprica world ^^)
(for the bourbon: black label
!)
An do not be so negative about your place (joking): everyone is depending on rural area for food, …and if you want to compare with BSG, it all ends and restart from that
But, I might understand as I visit USA years ago: there is a huge difference between big cities and country-side, which do not appear in Belgium for instance due to the fact it is a very small country and the density of poulation is one of the higghest in the world, with Japan. For only 11 million habitants.
Youtube,…facebook also …actually, you should be more afraid of something like facebook you know (some employers are seaching and can check your relatives, friends and what you are doing on free times and compare with your CV….could be bad sometimes: just like the emplyee who was sick officially, but posted pictures of holidays!—–fired of course)
Black Label – Good choice, good call. This area’s okay, lots of history from the Civil War, but I was raised n the city, actually. I’m used to asphalt, concrete, steel, not open acres of farmland in the suburbs around me. My hometown is like NYC compared to rural Mid – Tennessee.
I’ve heard weird stories about FaceBook & even Craigslist. My step – sis in law has a FaceBook page, & I told her that predators hang out there. Maybe I was thinking of MySpace.
Not quite like V – World or ” Club V ” but it could be getting there in 10 years or so. I almost tried Second Life, but just wasn’t attracted to it. Second Life is closer to Caprica’s V – World, sans Holobands.
I see what you mean. Btw, that virtual world in Caprica is going to be “fashion” again, especially with the Tron Legacy movie (12-17-2010)
I saw Tron on a drive – in theater’s HUGE silver screen in the 80′s. Interesting, but it was basically like watching a video game, unlike The Matrix or ” Virtuality ” ( A little movie with Denzel Washington ) or ” The Lawnmower Man “.
Sure, but for that time (80′s). You have to see the trailer of Tron Legacy. Might be the most and real sequel to a movie from the past (showing the computer technology evolution)
Hmm….. If Tron Legacy comes this way, I’ll scope it out. In a world where people have computer access on their PHONES, things have come a long way in a short time.
Check the trailer, that’s my best advise.
I’ll Google it. I really DID hear about here 1st !!!!
Tron started the cyber – space concept, ” Lawn – Mower Man “, ” Virtuality “, ” The Matrix “, & others really expanded upon it. Caprica’s Holo – Bands perpetuate the concept.
The first ” Cyber – Space ” story ( Kind of ) was ” I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream ” by Harlan Ellison. I have it in a .pdf format, & the anthology with the original story is here somewhere. It takes place INSIDE a psychotic computer who was named ” IAM ” ( If memory serves….. ).
Is the eye a modified windshield wiper mechamism?
I am trying to make a cylon model myself.